World TrailO Championships: close results in sand-dune forest

The first day of the PreO competition today featured wins for Jan Furucz, Slovakia (Open) and Ola Jansson, Sweden (Paralympic). Results were very close with 13 competitors getting full scores.

The course in the sand-dune forest beside Daugavpils, Latvia had 28 controls plus a timed control, and the timed control proved decisive as so many achieved full scores. In the Open class it was Jan Furucz who correctly answered the three timed tasks in 12.5 seconds, an amazingly fast time, 9 seconds quicker than anyone else. Second was Geir Myhr Øien, Norway (21.5) and third Antti Rusanen, Finland (27.5).

Eleven Open class competitors had all controls correct, and there were fifteen with just one mistake, so competition will be very tight on Day 2 on Thursday.

In the Paralympic class Ole Jansson and Svein Jakobsen, Norway both had the full score of 28, with Jansson using 88 seconds at the timed controls (including a 60-second penalty for a mistake) and Jakobson 151 seconds – two mistakes.